Read the text. Translate
The
First Hackers
The first "hackers" were students at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who belonged to the TMRC (Tech
Model Railroad Club). Some of the members really built model trains. But many
were more interested in the wires and circuits underneath the track platform.
Spending hours at TMRC creating better circuitry was called "a mere
hack." Those members who were interested in creating innovative,
stylistic, and technically clever circuits called themselves (with pride)
hackers.
During the spring of 1959, a new course was offered at
MIT, a freshman programming class. Soon the hackers of the railroad club were
spending days, hours, and nights hacking away at their computer, an IBM 704.
Instead of creating a better circuit, their hack became creating faster, more
efficient program - with the least number of lines of code. Eventually they
formed a group and created the first set of hacker's rules, called the Hacker's
Ethic.
Steven Levy, in his book Hackers, presented the rules:
1. Access
to computers - and anything, which might teach you, something about the way the
world works - should be unlimited and total.
2. All
information should be free.
3. Mistrust
authority - promote decentralization.
4. Hackers
should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, race, or
position.
5. You
can create art and beauty on a computer.
6. Computers
can change your life for the better.
These rules made programming at MIT's Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory a challenging, all encompassing endeavor. Just for the
exhilaration of programming, students in the Al Lab would write a new program
to perform even the smallest tasks. The program would be made available to
others who would try to perform the same task with fewer instructions. The act
of making the computer work more elegantly was, to a bonafide hacker,
awe-inspiring.
Hackers were given free reign on the computer by two
AI Lab professors, "Uncle" John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, who
realized that hacking created new insights. Over the years, the AI Lab created
many innovations: LIFE, a game about survival; LISP, a new kind of programming
language; the first computer chess game; The CAVE, the first computer
adventure; and SPACEWAR, the first video game.
Ex.1
Fill in the gaps
1. The
first "hackers" were students at the _____________________________
(MIT).
2. A
new course was offered at MIT in ___________ .
3. The
program would be made ___________ to others.
4. _________________
and ___________________ gave free reign on the computer.
5. Over
the years, the AI Lab created many ___________ .
Ex.2
Correct the mistakes
1. Access
to computers - and anything, which might teach you, something about the way the
world works - should be limited and empty.
2. All
information should be forbidden.
3. Trust
authority - promote decentralization.
4. Hackers
should be judged by their appearance, not bogus criteria such as degrees, race,
or position.
5. You
can create art and beauty on a street.
6. Computers
can spoil your life for the better.
Оставьте свой комментарий
Авторизуйтесь, чтобы задавать вопросы.